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Originally Posted by Niamh.
Absolutely correct the "Irish" exported it 
Spoiler: The best land was owned by wealthy English lords
First, for historical reasons, more than two million Irish labourers and their families were totally dependent on the potato to survive. This was much higher proportion than in other countries.
Second, the British government at the time was not prepared to fund famine relief and follow the steps taken in mainland Europe to prevent mass starvation.
The reason so many Irish poor relied on the potato was due to the issue of land ownership. The English conquest of Ireland meant most of the best land was in the hands wealthy landlords, many of whom were either English or of English descent. Many of them were known as absentee landlords because they didn’t even live in Ireland.
Most of these people, even those who lived in Ireland, still regarded themselves as British and had little empathy with the native Irish. They owned most of the best land, and their main concern was to make a profit from cash crops like wheat or by raising cattle.
The Irish were confined to the less fertile land. Their smallholdings were divided up between sons so that by the 1840s, most of Ireland’s poor depended almost entirely on what they could grow from small plots of second rate land. Some of these plots were little more than an acre.
The only crop that could provide enough food to support a family on such small plots was the potato. By the 1840s, more than two million people depended on it as their life support system. Even when times were good, they struggled to survive; if the crop failed they knew they faced starvation.
https://ireland-calling.com/irish-potato-famine/ |
Who allowed the landowners to export thier goods?